Image by WikiImages on Pixabay · Pixabay License
William Labov
Sign in to saveAmerican linguist (1927–2024)
OverviewAI-generated
William Labov was a linguist, sociologist, and university teacher, born in Rutherford on 4 December 1927, a citizen of the United States. He was educated at Harvard College and Columbia University, and studied under doctoral advisor Uriel Weinreich, who also influenced his work in linguistics and sociolinguistics. He was employed by Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Labov was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and received the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Benjamin Franklin Medal. He was married to Gillian Sankoff, had two children, and lived in Rittenhouse Square. He died in Philadelphia on 17 December 2024.
Synthesized by Vinony from 22 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
In the Vinony graph
William Labov appears in Vinony's American Academy of Arts & Sciences collection — one of 9,870 entries.
Within Vinony's link graph, William Labov is referenced by 167 other articles, and connects out to professor, Benjamin Franklin Medal and English language.
It is catalogued under topics including 1927 births, 2024 deaths and 20th-century American linguists.
Its subject is documented across 32 Wikipedia language editions.
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1927-12-04 ) December 4, 1927, Passaic, New Jersey , U.S.
- Died
- December 17, 2024 (2024-12-17) (aged 97), Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, U.S.
- Occupations
- Industrial chemist (1949–60) Professor of linguistics (1964 – 2014)
- Known for
- Variationist sociolinguistics
- Spouses
- Teresa Gnasso Gillian Sankoff ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1993 )
- Children
- 7, including Alice Goffman
- Education
- Harvard University ( BA ), Columbia University ( MA , PhD )
- Doctoral advisor
- Uriel Weinreich
- Discipline
- Linguist
- Institutions
- Columbia University , University of Pennsylvania
- Notable ideas
- Covert prestige
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- William
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Rutherford
- Place of death
- Philadelphia
- Occupation
- sociologist
- Educated at
- Columbia University
- Employer
- University of Pennsylvania
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Doctoral advisor
- Uriel Weinreich
- Field of work
- sociolinguistics
- Number of children
- 2
- Residence
- Rittenhouse Square
Show 5 more facts
- date of birth
- 1927-12-04
- influenced by
- Uriel Weinreich
- date of death
- 2024-12-17
- name in native language
- William Labov
via Wikidata · CC0
~14 min read
Encyclopedic overview
William David Labov (/ləˈboʊv/ lə-BOHV; December 4, 1927 – December 17, 2024) was an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics, and "one of the most influential linguists of the 20th and 21st centuries".
Labov was a professor in the linguistics department of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and pursued research in sociolinguistics, language change, and dialectology. He retired in 2015 but continued to publish research until his death in 2024.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “William Labov” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.